Dora the Explorer Party -  For my younger son's first birthday in May 2001, I decided to have a "Dora the Explorer" birthday theme because whenever this program came on, he would stop whatever he was doing and would start dancing to the music.  This was the only t.v. program he was ever interested in and still is.  I knew the theme would be a little difficult since the program had just aired and I knew I wouldn't find anything that I could buy, so I got a little creative. For the invitations, I found a picture of Dora and Boots that I could download into Adobe PhotoShop and took a digital picture of my son Devin and inserted his picture in between Dora and Boots so it looked like Devin was playing with them. I then took this revised picture and copied the image to Print Master to create an invitation. On the invitation I wrote, "Come explore Devin's 1st Birthday with us!"  I also included our address, date, time, and RSVP information.  For the party, I created the "Devin the Explorer" game where the kids (with the help of their parents) had to find their way to the "hidden treasure". First, I drew a map of where the hidden treasure could be found. Since the party was going to be held in our backyard, I used whatever we had in the backyard to create the map. I drew a tree, a slide and our turtle sandbox.  On the day of the party, with the help of the "Dora" music I recorded off the t.v., I sang the "I'm the Map" song with the help of the kids and went over the map in detail, just like the t.v. show.  I then played the "Backpack Song" and handed out a backpack to each child with their name on it.  When the kids got to the tree, they had to find 3 different shaped objects with their name on it and put them into their backpacks. I used construction paper to make 3 different shapes (a triangle, a square, and a circle) to hold the toys I had bought (I bought a few inexpensive toys like yo-yos, bouncy balls, and bracelets).  My husband used some ribbon and tied each one to our tree branches (this took him awhile since he had to tie 78 of them!) When the kids and parents were ready, I pulled the map out again to find our next destination...the slide. At this time, I sang the "Grumpy Old Troll who lived under the Slide" song and told them that before they could go down the slide, they had to solve the "Grumpy Old Troll's" riddle. The riddle was this: "Solve my riddle and you can't be wrong, do you know the Happy Birthday song?"  Everyone started singing the Happy Birthday song - it was Great!  As each child went down the slide, we gave out wrapped coloring books that I had previous wrapped and stored under the slide, to put into their backpacks.  The next destination was the hidden treasure. I used our turtle sandbox, which has a cover and filled it with our plastic balls that came from our sons' ball pit. On top of the cover, I made and taped an "X" for "X marks the spot" out of construction paper. Before the party, I had wrapped a small gift (dolls, basketball hoops, books) for each child and put their name on it and put these under all the balls.  In order to get to the hidden treasure, everyone had to "take 3 steps back, 8 steps forward, 5 steps to the right, etc." until they finally reached the hidden treasure. Once everyone had found their treasure, the game was over and we had cake and ice cream.  I gave a picture of the invitation to our bakery and they were able to create a picture of Dora and Boots on the cake with Happy 1st Birthday, Devin written on it. The backpack and the items each child received throughout the game was their party bag and favors.  Everyone loved it and couldn't wait to see what I would come up with for my older son's 3rd birthday party in July...it was a Blue's Clue party...the kids had to find 3 "Brandon Clues" and guess what he wanted to do for this 3rd birthday.  Instead of paw prints, I used cut outs of Brandon's hands as the "clues" and taped them to a candle, a fork, and a paper plate. What did he want to do?  Eat cake, of course!